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User talk:Madman97
Welcome Hi, welcome to Creepypasta Wiki! Thanks for your edit to the User talk:HumboldtLycanthrope page. Please be sure to check out all the Site Rules, as it is important to follow them. Failure to abide by them may result in your account being blocked. Read some new pastas by checking out or browse by topic by checking out the Genre Listing. Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! WhyAmIReadingThis (talk) 01:59, December 27, 2015 (UTC) RE: Hmmmm...I thi-i-i-ink it'd be fine if your story included H.P. Lovecraft characters and references to other stories. However this is a question I never got before in my life! I recommend you confirm with other Administrators as well if it's allowed. I myself see no problem with it but it's possible this falls into the 'Spinoffs' category of stories. Better to get more than one opinion on this matter, just in case! --"You know why he's here? Why he's investigating the broken rules? He's not paid or anything. He likes it. He gets off on it" (talk) 03:14, December 27, 2015 (UTC) :Hey, AFAIK that should be alright, we have a couple of stories that include that kinda thing which, IIRC, didn't go through Spinoff Appeal and were allowed. :Hope this helped :) : | creepypasta.wikia.com | I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! | [[User:Underscorre|'Under']][[User talk:Underscorre|'Scorre']] }} 20:20, December 27, 2015 (UTC) You Got it! Madman, Thanks for contacting me. Shawn is awesome and a very talented writer for such a young age. I respect him. To answer your question(s), I'd be happy to answer some questions for you. First off, let me say that I actually used to own Skyrim years ago and fell in love with the game. I played for about 4 months then got to a point in the game where I was just stuck and going nowhere. I had done everything I really wanted to do. I don't recall everything about it but my favorite aspect was joining the Assasin's Guild. Once that game was pretty much complete, I went on exploring the rest of the game. I hated to part with it but it was time to move on. 1. In general, (regardless of wether or not it's a war story) superb character develpment is crutial in really captivating an audiance. What are some of your favorite films, books or stories? Character development is a large part of why a great story pulls us in. Look at what Quentin Tarantino did in Deathproof. He spends half the film pulling you in by using character development. You think the film will be solely about the group of girls in the first half, only to see them die horribly before your eyes. You're kinda crushed. By then, you are so wrapped up in it, you want this baddie to get what's comming to him. It's like loosing someone close to you or you have become fond of. I have found when this happens in other games, this is a very effective motivator. One of my favorite films as far as atmosphere and historical setting and look of old world is the origional Conan the Barbarian (1983). It was popular when I was a kid. We even had Conan's Pizza. I recall going there and walking into a cave. Yes, the owner actually had the walls made to look like cave walls. You had rope everywhere, torches lit, you felt like you were in the times of the film (supposedly about 10,000 years ago or so.) Skyrim does a great job of this. This was one of my favorite things about the game. I felt like I was in that world with the setting and the soundtrack. As far as the weapons for the game, I thought it was a good selection. I wanted to see more but overall, I was happy with what was in the game. It would be cool to have more eastern style martial arts weapons in the game. It would also be nice to see a training session as with the classic ps2 game Kengo: master of bushido. 2. Real fighting takes skill. Skill learned by practice. Some people are just very skilled at hurting and murdering others. They don't see it as any special skill. It's just killing. If you wanted to use some sort of skill to fight by using a controller, well I don't know what to say except that I found that the controls for UFC games (using the 2 small joysticks as a means of using specific skills) proved to be somewhat difficult for me. perhaps try that style. Personally, I always loved Mortal Kombat style controls. use fighting game controls and matches in the mortal kombat style during gameplay. or at least have an option for it. 3. So, I have to choose the shiniest turd huh? Regardless of what I chose, I would personally lead an underground movement to change what is wrong. Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack. Waiting for any followup questions. Thanks, this was fun. Blacknumber1 (talk) 06:18, December 27, 2015 (UTC) RE: Elder Scrolls Dear Seth, I am delighted Shawn has recommended me to you as a writer. I find it quite the compliment and am flattered. Well, I am not a gamer; however, I have taken the time to try and answer your questions from the perspective of a writer. As for your first question regarding consequences. Yes, there should always be consequences. One of the first rules of fiction writing is that every action should have a consequence, and how your character reacts to them is what defines them as a person. In the case of killing the Emperor, the consequence should either be becoming the new Emperor or being imprisoned or gaining an army of loyal followers or being hounded by an angry mob. When it comes to flowers I suppose some could be poisonous and used as weapons others could be hallucinogenic and take one on a vision quest, and some could have some sort of healing power. You asked about dialogue. This is an area where I do believe I could offer some real insight. While dialogue can serve to offer exposition it should never be passive, it needs to be active and filled with tension. When studying creative writing you are taught to think of dialogue as an actual action, like movement, a duel between characters, that serves the purpose of the one talking. Good dialogue should feel like a sword fight, back and forth blows, blocks, and retaliation. Conflict and tension is the key. Often creative writing teachers will instruct you to write out the agenda the character wishes to serve with his dialogue. What is it they want to accomplish? What is the goal of their speech? What is it that they want? If dialogue is used simply to serve as backstory or reveal a quest it will certainly be boring and players will definitely skip over it. Marriage. Well, that’s a handful there. A marriage can serve many purposes, if the wife is rich and brings a large dowry, or is of royal blood, this could make you very wealthy and powerful, giving you lots of connections. If she is wise and you take heed of her counsel, this can give boon to your struggles. If she is a terrible nag or gives selfish or bad advice this can adversely affect your character. If she is scheming and dishonest, waiting for a chance to leave you for something better, this could really fuck you up, she could even be a murderess waiting for the right moment to put a knife in your back or sprinkle poison on your food. All of this should be a part of the marriage system in the game. They say behind every great man is a great woman and this should certainly be reflected in the game. Well, I hope this helps. Please keep me posted and let me know if I can be of further assistance. Yours Truly, HumboldtLycanthrope (talk) 18:57, December 28, 2015 (UTC) I've gotten a few short stories published, and my local newspaper sometimes publishes a review I've written, but I don't have a published novel nor a literary agent. I do have full length manuscript I'm trying to find representation for, so, I feel you, brother. There is definitely an art to writing a query letter. I find it an awful and tedious process, like trying to make a work of art into a cheap commercial. They have to be short and have a great hook, a lot of these people are looking at them on their phones, a hundred at a time. The best advice I can give is know the agent you are writing to and know the genre and target audience. This is key. Start like, "Dear Literary Agent, Since you represent so and so, and I love blah blah blah, I think you'd be interested in my adult mainstream horror novel whatever, complete at 85,000 words." You also want your manuscript polished and ready to go. If you give them something incomplete or not up to par they will never talk to you again. They have online classes on the query letter at Gotham, Writers Digest and LitReactor taught by literary agents. I love LitReactor classes and am taking The Coreography of Violence class in January. Check them out. Good luck, my friend, wish me the same. Here's a little bio if you want to use it: Matthew Brockmeyer is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in in Pulp Metal Magazine, Homeless Romantic Magazine and The Independent. He also writes extreme horror online under the pseudonym Humboldt Lycanthrope. Re: Messages >"Shawn Howell, and if that name means nothing to you, well, he just said you wrote his favorite series, Tobit, " You messaged the wrong user. Banningk1979 actually wrote the Tobit series. There must have been a crossing in the wires. For example, I am hilariously lacking in the visual arts department and would be hard pressed to describe the visual effects from a scholarly/learned perspective. I can respond if you like, but if you're looking for the author of the Tobit series, he's in the link I included above. As far as knowledge-wise on the topics, I have only played Skyrim and that was mainly following the side quests and not really focusing too much on the overall lore/history, although I have played (almost) every Fallout game in the series. (1, Tactics, 2, 3, NV, with 4 in the near future). I'll wait for your response about whether or not Shawn recommended Banning or I, as I'd hate to take an opportunity from someone else if it wasn't meant for me. EmpyrealInvective (talk) 05:09, December 29, 2015 (UTC) :I would say one of my biggest issues also happens to be one of its greatest strengths. The character customization/creation aspect and its lack of major effects on the character and story. For example, any race other than the Nords really seems out of place in the Stormcloak rebellion due to their ideology and it really isn't mentioned or discussed much. So a/an Argonian/Khajit/Wood Elf/etc. can participate in this rebellion that seems to have these racial ideologies and no one really bats an eye at the inconsistency. It feels like there's a wide selection but very little impact overall in the story. A Fallout example, I played through Fallout 3 as a good guy, a bad guy, and neutral and while being the worst person ever to exist; I think the only thing that really changed in the overall storyline was the Lone Wanderer's Dad scolding him about obliterating a town. This raises an odd question as to why a morally corrupt character is even going through with the water purification project if their actions are self-serving up to that point. I think FO:2 really handled this excellent degree of diversity best with a wide range of possible dialogue options and separate reputations to uphold. EmpyrealInvective (talk) 06:15, December 29, 2015 (UTC) Elder Scroll Answers Hey, thanks for writing me with your questions. While I am no expert in the field, I am a pretty big fan of Skyrim, so I guess I'll do my best to provide good respones. 1) I have asked other users about how the games, specifically Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 3, how the dialogue is over-expository and doesn't let the player feel for anything that's happening. The repetitive nature of the gameplay tends to overshadow any emotions captured, if any at all. Being an artist yourself and since video games are a visually interactive experience, how would you go about visually improving the tone and feel for games that gloss over things like there is a dragon who literally wants to eat the world flying around or radiation threatens to destroy what little of humanity is left? How would you convey the horror of that these games so often miss for the sake of expanding their audience to kids? Should we expose kids to this sort of thing if we want the games to be more horrific? I think the first thing we need to address here is the very simple and perhaps fact that video games are games, not movies. Back in the 80's, video games ranged from titles like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, and involved nothing more than simple, linear goal accomplishment. Get to the end of the level, kill the bad guys or figure out a puzzle. That was really about it, and no one really complained. This was largely due to the relative newness of video games to mainstream life, as well as the already established television and movie industry being the main outlet for entertainment. In other words, people had no expectations of video games being anything other than simple time wasters that granted a small amount of personal satisfaction when said tasks were completed. Now, over the decades, games have gotten bigger and far more indepth. Advances in technology have allowed video games to evolve from simple side scrollers to extremely complex interactive media sources. Which brings us to the issue at hand. Do I feel that the characters from games like Skyrim or Fallout need more human depth? Honestly, no. The satisfaction from those games for me still comes from building up the character from a weakling to a near god-like being. Seeing the story through until the end and basking in the satisfaction of a job well done. Now, with that said, there are quite a few examples of video games that took on cinematic concepts and did very well. Pretty much any of the early Final Fantasy games did an amazing job of combining a story with game play. Silent Hill and Resident Evil are also two very successful franchises when it comes to mixing story and action. However, at the end of the day, I think we've come far enough. A lot of video games have become more of a chore than a pleasure when it comes down to game play. You damn near need to be a savant critical thinking to get through some, like Mist or Riven. Others became so overly cinematic that there is almost a severe lack of game. Cut scenes that go on too long and can't be skipped, games that take far too long to get into, overly complicated gaming mechanics, (how many damn buttons do we really need) and of course the unwanted tutorials that became needed because game developers have tried to cram more into a video gaming experience that ever really needed to be there. '' ''Bottom line, while there have been some amazing games to come around since "next gen" became the big thing, I do believe that game developers need to realize that there is still a large divide between the type of entertainment sought in video games and the type of entertainment sought from television and movies. People watch shows for different reasons than they play games, and to try to merge to two platforms into one may be defeating the purpose of having two such different venues in the first place. Honestly, I don't really care how the Dragon Born feels, I just want him to grab a sword and go kill stuff. Maybe that isn't the most elegent opinion, but it is mine. 2) What, to you, is the scariest thing you can think of and how, if at all, do you think that could be added to the storyline of a video game to make playing it a disturbing, and therefore emotionally stirring, and therefore kick-ass, experience? There was a game that came out about a decade and some change ago that I remember reading about in a magazine. Clearly it didn't catch on, because I never heard about it again, but it was supposed to be the most horrifying video game ever released. It was a computer game that involved giving the game your cell phone number and email. The game would then actually call you and email you information. Some of it would be in the form of useful hints, but I do believe that the majority of it was intended to scare the player by sending cryptic threats. Now, I think this failed because of the time it came out. In the early 00's, high speed internet was still rare in most lower-middle income houses, and didn't exist at all in many low income homes. Cell phone plans were still minute based, and just receiving texts and calls could cause phone bills to sky rocket. I think those elements lead to the game failing to take off, as it was just too expensive and elaborate an idea for the time. Now though, with high speed internet being the rule and not the exception, and unlimited data plans being quite common on phones, I think such a game could work. The idea of the player still be tracked and harrassed by the game, even when the game was turned off, could certainly add a new element to gaming that has never been seen before. '' 3) What is your favorite art style and how would you like it incorporated into a game? Are there any specific games out there that meet your standard when it comes to visually telling a story? ''Honestly, graphics have never been a huge deal to me. I can still warm up the old Nintendo and spend hours delving into the 8-bit era. The old Final Fantasy titles on the SNES are still among my favorite games. I think Chrono Trigger did more visually with just 16-bits than a lot of games have done even recently. As far as games that meet my standard of visual play, I guess it all depends on the quality of the game. Like I said, I still love my NES, and a really fantastic game like Dragon Warrior or Rolling Thunder will keep me engaged all night, regardless of the poor graphics. '' ''We can all agree that the original Playstation had some of the ugliest graphics for a next gen system, especially compared to systems like the Dreamcast. However, a game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil on the PS1 could pull me so hard into the game that I really didn't care about the graphics. '' ''As far as games that really out did themselves on style and art though? I would have to say Chrono Trigger again. Devil May Cry was also ahead of its time with the style it brought to the table. Most Wii games are pretty incredible with graphics as well. Hell, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on the NES brought some of the most arcade accurate graphics to the home television way back in the late 80's. In closing, to me, the quality of a game will always be in the game play. I really don't care how good a game looks, if it sucks, it just sucks. The new WWE games all look amazing, but the damn controls and so overly complicated that it defeats the purpose of even playing a game, so to me, the graphics do nothing for the game there. All I ask for in my gaming is a good experience that is fun and worth the money I spend. I don't open a game case thinking the next Shawshank Redemption of Citizen Kane is going to load up on my screen. I just want something that is enjoyable. Well, hope this helps. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance in your project, and again, thanks for asking my opinion. K. Banning Kellum (talk) 04:17, December 30, 2015 (UTC) You're welcome Glad I was able to help. It was a rather fun Q&A and I enjoyed coming up with my answers. Best of luck to you! K. Banning Kellum (talk) 12:05, December 30, 2015 (UTC) Sounds awesome Thanks for the update, I'm going to go ahead and check it out tonight. Thanks for using my input. K. Banning Kellum (talk) 03:21, January 8, 2016 (UTC) Blog and new story I loved your blog, very well written, great job. Could I get you to do me a favor, though? Would you put my whole name (Matthew Brockmeyer) instead of just my first name? That way when people google me, your blog will come up too. I'm trying to establish my presense as a writer on the web. Thanks so much. Also, I have a new story up if you get a chance give it a read Daddy's Little Princess. I went all out and even made a video and created a web page for it. HumboldtLycanthrope (talk) 22:08, January 10, 2016 (UTC)